Center viewport key in Blender breaks the viewport
I had this problem like this early on.  It's because you're in perspective instead of ortho mode and in perspective the viewport behaves differently, it never goes in close to the object you're zooming, in ortho mode this doesn't happen.  Perhaps I'm over simplifying; but it behaves as you're saying on the 'when I move closer, I don't get any closer" I don't know about Maya.  If this is the issue, simply hit the number '5' on the number keypad in Blender key layout to switch between Ortho and Perspective, you want Ortho. if User Preferences are organized the same in Maya as in Blender, this would be under user settings: Input/3D View/3D View (Global)/View Persp/Ortho if you need to change user settings for Maya, or see what they are.